#drjonathancranemd

Hugo Strange: Patient interview number fifty-three, March seventh two thousand and seventeen. Today I have the chance to speak to a most interesting patient, who I have not been able to have the opportunity to speak to prior. Good morning, Mr Forte.

Michel Forte: Dr Strange. And I must say that I’m flattered by your choice of words.

HS: I am merely stating the facts. You were single-handedly able to orchestrate a plan that almost put you in rule of the entire world as we know it, not to mention educating yourself in a variety of musical genres and instruments.

MF: I try.

HS: Where could such cunning, such determination, originate perhaps? Your childhood? The loss of something precious to you?

MF: I can’t go on stage if I hardly know the tune, now can I?

HS: Yes, I was warned of your more musical mannerisms.

MF: Alliteration, doctor. How profound. Are you trying to appeal to my better nature?

HS: Again, I was only stating facts. But…from your choice of words, do you believe your musical-obsessed persona to be your ‘better’ nature?

MF: Of course! What could possibly be better? It’s certainly less boring *chuckles*…

HS: You see boring as something negative? To be ordinary, to have an ordinary life, just another face among the crowd?

MF: …

MF: It’s not a welcome thought, no.

HS: You paused, Michel. May I call you that? You paused because the answer you gave me was not the first thought that came to your mind. Would you care to share?

MF: I don’t think anyone wants to be just another face, doctor. ‘Ordinary’ has an awful habit of being associated with the word ‘dull’.

MF: And besides, do I really look like someone who would want to stay out of the spotlight?

HS: No, no you do not. Michel, I would like to know what drives you. Many believe that it was pure greed that motivated your planetary takeover, that the money was all you cared about.

MF: And you don’t?

HS: Of course not. There are far easier ways to obtain large sums of wealth.

MF: Yes, yes there are. *Chuckles*

HS: So, Michel, tell me; why did you want the entire world to bow at your feet and sing your praises?

MF: …

MF: Maybe it was greed.

HS: I cannot help you if you choose not to help yourself, Michel.

MF: Then tell me doctor. Why do you think I did it?

HS: I believe that you were motivated by a past trauma, one that made you feel like you were only subpar. Ordinary. This trauma has been a central focus of your life ever since it occurred, most likely in early childhood, and is set deep within your conscious. You are channelling your negative emotions, your anger, your hate, through your ‘Music Meister’ persona that you are so attached to. The wealth and power are appealing to you, but what you truly desire is to prove yourself, to show that you are not inadequate as something or someone made you feel you were.

…

MF: …

HS: Am I wrong, Mr Forte?

MF: …That’s what you think?

HS: Until you say otherwise, yes, that is what I believe.

MF: I believe…that I would like to leave.

HS: Our session is not over, Michel, and besides, what could you possibly have to look forward to back in that dark, eerily silent cell of yours?

…

MF: Nothing.

HS: That is what I thought. So, would you kindly respond to my theory?

MF: I would have thought that someone of your intimate knowledge would already know, doctor.

HS: The bullying? Surely that cannot be the only cause.

MF: You’ve talked to Crane, to Edward. You should know how those kind of things hurt.

HS: Many children endure that kind of harsh treatment during their adolescence. They do not all create outrageous costumes and make the city take part in their outlandish fantasies.

MF: Harsh…treatment?

MF: They would spend every day, trying to find new ways to torment me. I would spend every day, dreading walking down those corridors. Every day, they would find me and beat me to a pulp, shouting insults and derogatory nicknames. Wuss, Girl, Faggot…Choir boy. They made my life a living hell, kicking me down for the one thing, the one thing that I was good at!

MF: If that is what you see as ‘harsh’ treatment, doctor…then you are horribly, incredibly underestimating the meaning of the word.

HS: So, when you discovered your supernatural power to control-

MF: *Slams hands on table* I made them PAY! I made those tone-deaf idiots prance for me, and I made sure that no one ever treated me like that again!

HS: And thus, the Music Meister was born.

MF: There were a few more steps, but yes.

HS: And would you say that you have accomplished what you wanted to achieve? I see no one now who treats you so ruthlessly.

MF: No one ever sees, do they, Strange? Everyone is so transfixed by the spectacle onstage that they pay no attention to the poor stagehand working tirelessly behind the scenes.

HS: So you still believe there is reason for your criminal antics?

MF: *Laughs* The stage would be lost without me.

HS: So you say. Thank you, Michel, now if you would be so kind as to sit down…

…

HS: Thank you. I hope that you will think about what I have been trying to tell you.

MF: That the world is not such a bad place? That I need to find some end, a way for me to finally be satisfied?

HS: You were actually listening.